Johnny: An Autonomous Service Robot for Domestic Environments

Thomas Breuer
Geovanny Giorgana Macedo
Ronny Hartanto
Nico Hochgeschwender
Frederik Hegger
Zha Jin
Christian Müller
Jan Paulus
Mike Reckhaus
José Álvarez Ruiz
Paul Plöger
Gerhard K. Kraetzschmar
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 66(1-2)(2012), pp. 245-272

Abstract

In this article we describe the architecture, algorithms and real-world benchmarks performed by Johnny Jackanapes, an autonomous service robot for domestic environments. Johnny serves as a research and development platform to explore, develop and integrate capabilities required for real-world domestic service applications. We present a control architecture which allows to cope with various and changing domestic service robot tasks. A software architecture supporting the rapid integration of functionality into a complete system is as well presented. Further, we describe novel and robust algorithms centered around multi-modal human robot interaction, semantic scene understanding and SLAM. Evaluation of the complete system has been performed during the last years in the RoboCup@Home competition where Johnnys outstanding performance led to successful participation. The results and lessons learned of these benchmarks are explained in more detail.

Research Areas